custom-management-commands.txt

==============================================
How to create custom ``django-admin`` commands
==============================================

.. module:: django.core.management

Applications can register their own actions with ``manage.py``. For example,
you might want to add a ``manage.py`` action for a Django app that you're
distributing. In this document, we will be building a custom ``closepoll``
command for the ``polls`` application from the
:doc:`tutorial</intro/tutorial01>`.

To do this, add a ``management/commands`` directory to the application. Django
will register a ``manage.py`` command for each Python module in that directory
whose name doesn't begin with an underscore. For example:

.. code-block:: text

    polls/
        __init__.py
        models.py
        management/
            __init__.py
            commands/
                __init__.py
                _private.py
                closepoll.py
        tests.py
        views.py

In this example, the ``closepoll`` command will be made available to any project
that includes the ``polls`` application in :setting:`INSTALLED_APPS`.

The ``_private.py`` module will not be available as a management command.

The ``closepoll.py`` module has only one requirement -- it must define a class
``Command`` that extends :class:`BaseCommand` or one of its
:ref:`subclasses<ref-basecommand-subclasses>`.

.. admonition:: Standalone scripts

    Custom management commands are especially useful for running standalone
    scripts or for scripts that are periodically executed from the UNIX crontab
    or from Windows scheduled tasks control panel.

To implement the command, edit ``polls/management/commands/closepoll.py`` to
look like this::

    from django.core.management.base import BaseCommand, CommandError
    from polls.models import Question as Poll


    class Command(BaseCommand):
        help = "Closes the specified poll for voting"

        def add_arguments(self, parser):
            parser.add_argument("poll_ids", nargs="+", type=int)

        def handle(self, *args, **options):
            for poll_id in options["poll_ids"]:
                try:
                    poll = Poll.objects.get(pk=poll_id)
                except Poll.DoesNotExist:
                    raise CommandError('Poll "%s" does not exist' % poll_id)

                poll.opened = False
                poll.save()

                self.stdout.write(
                    self.style.SUCCESS('Successfully closed poll "%s"' % poll_id)
                )

.. _management-commands-output:

.. note::
    When you are using management commands and wish to provide console
    output, you should write to ``self.stdout`` and ``self.stderr``,
    instead of printing to ``stdout`` and ``stderr`` directly. By
    using these proxies, it becomes much easier to test your custom
    command. Note also that you don't need to end messages with a newline
    character, it will be added automatically, unless you specify the ``ending``
    parameter::

        self.stdout.write("Unterminated line", ending="")

The new custom command can be called using ``python manage.py closepoll
<poll_ids>``.

The ``handle()`` method takes one or more ``poll_ids`` and sets ``poll.opened``
to ``False`` for each one. If the user referenced any nonexistent polls, a
:exc:`CommandError` is raised. The ``poll.opened`` attribute does not exist in
the :doc:`tutorial</intro/tutorial02>` and was added to
``polls.models.Question`` for this example.

.. _custom-commands-options:

Accepting optional arguments
============================

The same ``closepoll`` could be easily modified to delete a given poll instead
of closing it by accepting additional command line options. These custom
options can be added in the :meth:`~BaseCommand.add_arguments` method like this::

    class Command(BaseCommand):
        def add_arguments(self, parser):
            # Positional arguments
            parser.add_argument("poll_ids", nargs="+", type=int)

            # Named (optional) arguments
            parser.add_argument(
                "--delete",
                action="store_true",
                help="Delete poll instead of closing it",
            )

        def handle(self, *args, **options):
            # ...
            if options["delete"]:
                poll.delete()
            # ...

The option (``delete`` in our example) is available in the options dict
parameter of the handle method. See the :py:mod:`argparse` Python documentation
for more about ``add_argument`` usage.

In addition to being able to add custom command line options, all
:doc:`management commands</ref/django-admin>` can accept some default options
such as :option:`--verbosity` and :option:`--traceback`.

.. _management-commands-and-locales:

Management commands and locales
===============================

By default, management commands are executed with the current active locale.

If, for some reason, your custom management command must run without an active
locale (for example, to prevent translated content from being inserted into
the database), deactivate translations using the ``@no_translations``
decorator on your :meth:`~BaseCommand.handle` method::

    from django.core.management.base import BaseCommand, no_translations


    class Command(BaseCommand):
        ...

        @no_translations
        def handle(self, *args, **options): ...

Since translation deactivation requires access to configured settings, the
decorator can't be used for commands that work without configured settings.

Testing
=======

Information on how to test custom management commands can be found in the
:ref:`testing docs <topics-testing-management-commands>`.

Overriding commands
===================

Django registers the built-in commands and then searches for commands in
:setting:`INSTALLED_APPS` in reverse. During the search, if a command name
duplicates an already registered command, the newly discovered command
overrides the first.

In other words, to override a command, the new command must have the same name
and its app must be before the overridden command's app in
:setting:`INSTALLED_APPS`.

Management commands from third-party apps that have been unintentionally
overridden can be made available under a new name by creating a new command in
one of your project's apps (ordered before the third-party app in
:setting:`INSTALLED_APPS`) which imports the ``Command`` of the overridden
command.

Command objects
===============

.. class:: BaseCommand

The base class from which all management commands ultimately derive.

Use this class if you want access to all of the mechanisms which
parse the command-line arguments and work out what code to call in
response; if you don't need to change any of that behavior,
consider using one of its :ref:`subclasses<ref-basecommand-subclasses>`.

Subclassing the :class:`BaseCommand` class requires that you implement the
:meth:`~BaseCommand.handle` method.

Attributes
----------

All attributes can be set in your derived class and can be used in
:class:`BaseCommand`’s :ref:`subclasses<ref-basecommand-subclasses>`.

.. attribute:: BaseCommand.help

    A short description of the command, which will be printed in the
    help message when the user runs the command
    ``python manage.py help <command>``.

.. attribute:: BaseCommand.missing_args_message

    If your command defines mandatory positional arguments, you can customize
    the message error returned in the case of missing arguments. The default is
    output by :py:mod:`argparse` ("too few arguments").

.. attribute:: BaseCommand.output_transaction

    A boolean indicating whether the command outputs SQL statements; if
    ``True``, the output will automatically be wrapped with ``BEGIN;`` and
    ``COMMIT;``. Default value is ``False``.

.. attribute:: BaseCommand.requires_migrations_checks

    A boolean; if ``True``, the command prints a warning if the set of
    migrations on disk don't match the migrations in the database. A warning
    doesn't prevent the command from executing. Default value is ``False``.

.. attribute:: BaseCommand.requires_system_checks

    A list or tuple of tags, e.g. ``[Tags.staticfiles, Tags.models]``. System
    checks :ref:`registered in the chosen tags <registering-labeling-checks>`
    will be checked for errors prior to executing the command. The value
    ``'__all__'`` can be used to specify that all system checks should be
    performed. Default value is ``'__all__'``.

.. attribute:: BaseCommand.style

    An instance attribute that helps create colored output when writing to
    ``stdout`` or ``stderr``. For example::

        self.stdout.write(self.style.SUCCESS("..."))

    See :ref:`syntax-coloring` to learn how to modify the color palette and to
    see the available styles (use uppercased versions of the "roles" described
    in that section).

    If you pass the :option:`--no-color` option when running your command, all
    ``self.style()`` calls will return the original string uncolored.

.. attribute:: BaseCommand.suppressed_base_arguments

    The default command options to suppress in the help output. This should be
    a set of option names (e.g. ``'--verbosity'``). The default values for the
    suppressed options are still passed.

Methods
-------

:class:`BaseCommand` has a few methods that can be overridden but only
the :meth:`~BaseCommand.handle` method must be implemented.

.. admonition:: Implementing a constructor in a subclass

    If you implement ``__init__`` in your subclass of :class:`BaseCommand`,
    you must call :class:`BaseCommand`’s ``__init__``::

        class Command(BaseCommand):
            def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
                super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
                # ...

.. method:: BaseCommand.create_parser(prog_name, subcommand, **kwargs)

    Returns a ``CommandParser`` instance, which is an
    :class:`~argparse.ArgumentParser` subclass with a few customizations for
    Django.

    You can customize the instance by overriding this method and calling
    ``super()`` with ``kwargs`` of :class:`~argparse.ArgumentParser` parameters.

.. method:: BaseCommand.add_arguments(parser)

    Entry point to add parser arguments to handle command line arguments passed
    to the command. Custom commands should override this method to add both
    positional and optional arguments accepted by the command. Calling
    ``super()`` is not needed when directly subclassing ``BaseCommand``.

.. method:: BaseCommand.get_version()

    Returns the Django version, which should be correct for all built-in Django
    commands. User-supplied commands can override this method to return their
    own version.

.. method:: BaseCommand.execute(*args, **options)

    Tries to execute this command, performing system checks if needed (as
    controlled by the :attr:`requires_system_checks` attribute). If the command
    raises a :exc:`CommandError`, it's intercepted and printed to ``stderr``.

.. admonition:: Calling a management command in your code

    ``execute()`` should not be called directly from your code to execute a
    command. Use :func:`~django.core.management.call_command` instead.

.. method:: BaseCommand.handle(*args, **options)

    The actual logic of the command. Subclasses must implement this method.

    It may return a string which will be printed to ``stdout`` (wrapped
    by ``BEGIN;`` and ``COMMIT;`` if :attr:`output_transaction` is ``True``).

.. method:: BaseCommand.check(app_configs=None, tags=None,display_num_errors=False, include_deployment_checks=False, fail_level=checks.ERROR, databases=None)

    Uses the system check framework to inspect the entire Django project for
    potential problems. Serious problems are raised as a :exc:`CommandError`;
    warnings are output to ``stderr``; minor notifications are output to
    ``stdout``.

    If ``app_configs`` and ``tags`` are both ``None``, all system checks are
    performed except deployment and database related checks. ``tags`` can be a
    list of check tags, like ``compatibility`` or ``models``.

    You can pass ``include_deployment_checks=True`` to also perform deployment
    checks, and list of database aliases in the ``databases`` to run database
    related checks against them.

.. _ref-basecommand-subclasses:

``BaseCommand`` subclasses
--------------------------

.. class:: AppCommand

A management command which takes one or more installed application labels as
arguments, and does something with each of them.

Rather than implementing :meth:`~BaseCommand.handle`, subclasses must
implement :meth:`~AppCommand.handle_app_config`, which will be called once for
each application.

.. method:: AppCommand.handle_app_config(app_config, **options)

    Perform the command's actions for ``app_config``, which will be an
    :class:`~django.apps.AppConfig` instance corresponding to an application
    label given on the command line.

.. class:: LabelCommand

A management command which takes one or more arbitrary arguments (labels) on
the command line, and does something with each of them.

Rather than implementing :meth:`~BaseCommand.handle`, subclasses must implement
:meth:`~LabelCommand.handle_label`, which will be called once for each label.

.. attribute:: LabelCommand.label

    A string describing the arbitrary arguments passed to the command. The
    string is used in the usage text and error messages of the command.
    Defaults to ``'label'``.

.. method:: LabelCommand.handle_label(label, **options)

    Perform the command's actions for ``label``, which will be the string as
    given on the command line.

Command exceptions
------------------

.. exception:: CommandError(returncode=1)

Exception class indicating a problem while executing a management command.

If this exception is raised during the execution of a management command from a
command line console, it will be caught and turned into a nicely-printed error
message to the appropriate output stream (i.e., ``stderr``); as a result,
raising this exception (with a sensible description of the error) is the
preferred way to indicate that something has gone wrong in the execution of a
command. It accepts the optional ``returncode`` argument to customize the exit
status for the management command to exit with, using :func:`sys.exit`.

If a management command is called from code through
:func:`~django.core.management.call_command`, it's up to you to catch the
exception when needed.